Drug could treat baldness, prostate cancer

Thursday

PARIS — Men who start to go bald at age 20 may be able to take a pill to prevent hair loss and prostate cancer, according to preliminary research published Wednesday.

PARIS — Men who start to go bald at age 20 may be able to take a pill to prevent hair loss and prostate cancer, according to preliminary research published Wednesday.

The study, published in the journal Annals of Oncology, found men who lose their hair early may have twice the chance of developing prostate cancer later in life as men who do not.

If the link between baldness and prostate cancer was confirmed, the study suggests, it might lead to men being tested for prostate cancer years earlier, and let them access preventative treatment.

Scientists working on the Paris-based study said that a drug already on the market in the United Kingdom and the United States could then be used to treat baldness and prostate cancer at the same time.

"Balding at the age of 20 may be one of these easily identifiable risk factors and more work needs to be done now to confirm this," said study leader Philippe Giraud from Paris Descartes University.

He added that a commercially available drug called finasteride, marketed as Propecia or Proscar, could be used as a preventative treatment for both problems.

A total of 669 people took part in the study, including 388 people who had a history of prostate cancer and 281 who did not. They were asked to note the extent, if any, of their baldness at the ages of 20, 30 and 40.

Scientists analyzed responses and found that people with prostate cancer were twice as likely to have hair loss aged 20. The chances of getting prostate cancer did not increase when men went bald at 30 or 40, the study found.

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